Hochul winds down congressional duties

6:56 PM,
Dec. 23, 2012

Dem. Kathy Hochul, right, hands some congratula-tions balloons to Hunter Weisbeck, 2, and his mom, Colleen Weisbeck, Irondequoit, as she greets patrons at the Long Pond Family Restaurant in Greece in 2011.

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Democratic Rep. Kathy Hochul already has marked off most of the items on her leaving-Congress checklist.

She no longer has a Washington office. Constituents have had their case files returned or forwarded to another lawmaker of their choosing. New cases are being referred to either Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand or Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer.

"They actually wipe our computers clean," Hochul said during an interview. "We are trying to follow the letter of the law here." ...